'Walmart Melania' Trends After Casey DeSantis Wears 'Florida: Where Woke Goes To Die' Jacket
Casey DeSantis, the wife of Florida Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, has made her debut in national political discourse after wearing a jacket with the catchphrase "Where woke goes to die" emblazoned on the back in Iowa over the weekend.
For Daily Beast editor Katie Baker, the jacket was reminiscent of Melania Trump's infamous "I Don't Really Care, Do U?" coat, which the former First Lady wore en route to the U.S.-Mexico border in the midst of controversy about migrant families getting separated. As such, Baker dubbed Casey DeSantis "Walmart Melania," implying that the First Lady of Florida was attempting to do a cheap imitation of the former First Lady.
Casey DeSantis’ coat is just like her husband Ron DeSantis’ campaign: Crude. Grasping. Saying the ugly part out loud… DeSantis wants to peel off Trump’s base by being even more explicit about who he intends to target. You can see it right there on his wife’s jacket: DeSantis’ Florida is where the woke go to die--and a lot of other people die as well.
The piece on the whole is very left-leaning, as it chides the DeSantises and Trumps for their messaging as a power couple while praising Democratic first families like the Obamas and the Kennedys.
The term apparently angered some conservatives and struck a chord with many on social media, as "Walmart Melania" trended this morning. On Fox News, a commentary round table spoke about the headline as evidence the "elitist left" looked down on working-class Americans (DeSantis attended Yale and Harvard University).
Several conservatives on social media echoed the message of Fox News, while other, more left-leaning posters relished the piece. Media outlets followed suit, with conservative outlets like Washington Examiner calling the term a "preview of the filth to be flung at Mrs. DeSantis by the liberal media" while more left-leaning outlets like Raw Story used the term to discuss how Casey DeSantis "embraces her husband’s message of 'division and dehumanization.'"
It seems like the Daily Beast's jab is par for the course for what promises to be an ugly primary campaign between DeSantis and Donald Trump, as a Super PAC for the latter has already taken a shot at the Florida Governor apparently once eating pudding with his fingers.
Judging from that incident, it seems the Trump campaign doesn't need any help from liberal media to criticize what has so far been an arguably bumpy DeSantis campaign.